The Other Road
by BentheWraith
Summary: Sometimes the road not taken was the better road. Harry Potter is given the chance to make the choice he made previously. The question is, can they be saved?


A Different Path

"_This is the disclaimer. I know, the seemingly pointless thing that you put on everything to keep it legit and you not getting sued. Unfortunate and a complete waste of time. J.K. Rowling owns Harry Potter, I own only what I write about him." _

Warnings: Violence, Racism

Pairings: Harry x Katie Bell, Daphne Greengrass

Misc. Warnings: Do not read if you are against, well, you will get the point once you read the first chapter.

Other Fact: No Slash.

_**This is only a Beta, so don't get rude and overly mean, there's a thing called politeness.**_

The Wish

Harry stood at the door of his bedroom at Number Four Privet Drive. He wanted so badly to escape the predicament, not for the first time. In fact, it was a common occurrence for the boy who survived the greatest Dark Lord in a hundred years. For the current Dark Lord was even worse than Grindelwald, the German Dark Lord who raged during the Muggle World's darkest hour. A Dark Lord of course was the most powerful wizard, well, at least as far as Dark Magic goes.

It was a frightening experience, and the Gryffindor courage he had shown over the years was beginning to dwindle. He felt like running. He knew he wouldn't be found if he fled the country. Perhaps that was his future, a forgotten. It would be relative to his name, after all. He was a Potter's child, if one could get the clue. No one really wanted him, they just liked him because of his fame, had he not have been targeted by Voldemort and his parents had died, nobody would have cared about the Boy-Who-Lived.

He strolled on over to the bed whose sheets had never been washed, despite the constant nightmares, in which he would awake soaked in blood where his fingernails had clawed into his skin. Voldemort was showing no mercy nowadays. In fact, he probably desired something to this effect, for the boy to be plagued with his nightmares of torture, for the boy to scream and claw at himself in misery. The man was a true sociopath, caring nothing for the people he tortured, without any sense of right and wrong.

His friends try to tell him that the future is nothing, and that he will win, that the light will prevail and that everything will be alright. How could he be alright if there was some mad sociopath wanting to kill him in ways that would make even a Nazi cringe in fear and disgust? And the past, the ones his friends say the future will revert back to, as in the peace, and the usual ways of life, they'll never come.

He has been forever changed by Voldemort, consciously and unconsciously. They were too alike, and too spiteful of each other. There was nothing but fear of failure, failure for the fact he was powerless to stop Voldemort, despite what the prophecy says. There was nothing but intense will to kill each other, something that has brewed in the back of Harry's mind. It was there before; when he wanted to learn magic to curse his cousin for all the times he had beaten him, when he wanted to kill Sirius Black for betraying his parents, granted it turned out to be Pettigrew.

His parents had been betrayed by a rodent animagus, how appropriate for the man that ratted out his parents when Voldemort wanted them dead. The rodent wanted power, had he not had it while growing up with his father? Power? If the roles were reversed and his father was put in the position of either betraying Pettigrew or being killed by the Dark Lord, he would have chosen death. This is perhaps one reason Severus was so spiteful towards him. Perhaps the greasy haired potions master was envious of Pettigrew, feeling that he would never have betrayed James. Was that really Severus's motivation for hating him so?

The past was nothing but bittersweet memories, and every year for him had been plagued in some way by the infamous Lord Voldemort, the same Lord Voldemort who had murdered his parents, the same Lord Voldemort that had given him a chance to live. Perhaps that was the prophecy, that he could not find the courage, or the cowardice, to serve Lord Voldemort. The hat still believes I would do well in Slytherin. For whatever reason, when I look at Draco Malfoy, I see not intense loathing as one would have believed. I see sadness where no one else could.

Most rich kids are that way. They have no pleasure in life. They have nothing that they have earned, and it brings them down. I see families such as the Weasleys, who despite their monetary status, show up with smiles on their faces. Draco thinks he's happy, he's really just pretending. For it's all a Slytherin child can do, is to pretend. They try to inflict pain on something else because they think it will make them feel better, only the truly insane ever feel pleasure. I see Lucius, and I see the same thing.

I know that Draco could have been saved, perhaps if someone had paid attention. I know that they could all have been saved from a life of false happiness that no one but another Slytherin could see. Everyone thinks I'm the perfect Gryffindor, they say I'm charismatic, honorable, courageous… I'm none of those things by choice, and I would never say I was charismatic. I'm probably one of the shyest kids in school, maybe along with Zabini.

A Slytherin child is really a child torn apart from pain. Hell, despite my courage, which is not by choice, I'm the Slytherin poster-child. Abused, matured by pains in my life that no one else should have to bear, parselmouth, green eyes, the same green that flies on their banners during Quidditch games, oh yes I am the Slytherin poster child. Tom was similar, and so is every one of the other Slytherins, to varying degrees. Tom and I would probably have understood each other were we to have grown up together, but now Tom is Lord Voldemort, and the person that could have understood me was gone. Now, Tom is Lord Voldemort, and the only person that ever knew what I felt is a murderer.

They get in so much trouble not because they really like doing it, it's because they seek attention. His mind kept referring back to Severus throughout this, seeing the child who wanted to be friends with James, and ended up becoming the bullied. It was only because he was a Slytherin. Had he been a Ravenclaw, James wouldn't have given him a passing glance. Something in me tells me that it's not the whole story; James simply would not have targeted him unless Severus had in some way declared war. In the end, it was that Severus gave in to James taunts, letting it destroy his life.

When he saw Tom of course, this went to the backburner of his mind. Despite how indoctrinated he had become, he still looked human. Had he really been paying attention, he would have realized. Both Tom and he were tragic figures, destroyed by life's cruelties. No one else around them saw them for who they truly were. In the end, it would be appropriate to say that both were Voldemort, and that in the end, both were Potter's Children.

Third year held the same bittersweet story as the others. He gave in to hatred, and he had nearly murdered an innocent man because of it. This very emotion filled him to the depths of his core. He knew that Sirius was a Potter's Child, and that his bullying was simply an act of finding attention. As cliché as it sounded, it's really the same thing that the shrinks and quacks always say, "their bullying is simply an act of attention, because no one pays attention to them." But he had nearly killed an innocent man, a man that grew up for twelve years of his life in the worst prison in the world to protect him, perhaps that is why he was a Gryffindor, for him to make that sort of sacrifice.

And then fourth year, fourth year held as much pain as the previous. The man who had murdered his parents had returned in full force, through the most disgusting of methods, kidnapping, and blood transfusion in this eccentric and rare potion. And then of course he had to deal with people believing that he was some crazy self-obsessed attention seeking delinquent with ulterior motives at hand.

Fifth year however, was the worst. His friends doubted him, and the school had more or less universally rallied behind the Ministry's taunts and accusations against him. It's no wonder Voldemort wanted to destroy the Ministry, it's as corrupt as the Slytherins are. Nepotism and corruption runs wild amongst the Ministry, and I bet that Lucius had arranged it so that Arthur never climbed the ranks of the Ministry, perhaps out of fear of the man. Of course, the Ministry also confessed that Voldemort had returned, and see how quickly he became the Boy-Who-Lived again.

That year was really the first time Draco's emotions broke through the relatively imperialistic upper class brat that everyone considered him to be. Draco was vengeful for his father going to Azkaban. His stable little lifestyle was being destroyed, along with his mask. Draco had become more aggressive than usual, and it most probably was not because of Lucius going to Azkaban. Lucius was really the only utility that Draco had to keep his mask from being ruined, and now he had to be more conscious. In fact, that extremely short glimpse of the real Draco that I saw back before the sorting showed through, again, just that one time when his stable lifestyle was threatened. It was hurt and fright. Draco had been frightened of being rejected, and then when his father went off to Azkaban it was fright that people may realize that he was nothing without his utility, which was ultimately Lucius.

He felt sad for the boy. He ultimately was losing everything, and it was because of hiding it. Had Draco never had hidden it, Draco would never be in the state he was now, just as had he been more truthful about himself being a Slytherin, perhaps he would not be battling himself as well. Perhaps or perhaps not this is a good thing.

The one wish that I could ever want was to make the choices I didn't make, not because I want to be a Slytherin get, but because I know that had I shaken hands with Malfoy, perhaps he would not have needed that mask after all.

**Potter's Child is a child that is unwanted. This is appropriate for the Slytherins because without their money, without the power of their parents, without the money sitting in their family vaults, without their fame, in reality, they would be nothing, and the world wouldn't even give them a passing glance.**

**This is only a beta, so expect it to improve dramatically. It's a little emotional towards a lot of things right now, and some of which I am currently going through, granted not to the extent that Harry is, but like Harry I'm battling a part of myself that I fear would really destroy me. Harry may or may not be OOC, but I'm not really going to say that he's that far, if he is. I think Harry's intelligence level may be a bit higher, other than that. **

**I personally feel that's my take on Slytherin House, although I'm not going to say that it is completely correct, I'm not the writer of Harry Potter. However, it's something that, like I've said, has been on my mind.**

**And last but not least, Senior Class of 'O5 rules! )**

**A shout out to all my Providence School of Jacksonville friends!**

**And finally, please review. **


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